


To Find You in the Dark

by dashingwhitesgt



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, F/M, I've rated it T for the murder element but it should be fine otherwise x, Murder Mystery, baby tufts of fluff, but that's kind of a consequence of a murder mystery, however i can promise that shirbert does not die, i know it says major character death, just to keep us all sane, tags to be added as they become relevant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:14:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24604537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dashingwhitesgt/pseuds/dashingwhitesgt
Summary: Halloween 1988. As the night comes down upon the English town of Camford, the Blythes believe that they would be able to enjoy a festive evening together. But when a group of trick-or-treating children mention that the home of the enigmatic freelance journalist Winifred Rose bore no answer at their knock, DI Anne Blythe rings her partner DS Diana Barry to investigate. Soon after discovering Winifred’s body on her living room floor, they become entangled in a web of mysteries – and every clue sends them digging deeper into the past of Dr Gilbert Blythe.
Relationships: Diana Barry & Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Comments: 17
Kudos: 21





	1. Prologue: The White Album

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, you lovely humans! I'm so incredibly excited to share this prologue with you all and to get started on telling this Shirbert detective au story 🙌 hope you all enjoy it & please let me know what you think! Sending love & virtual hugs xxx

It was just gone five. The building had slowly been emptying around Winifred. She was the last visitor left. The librarian had kept throwing her venomous glances. Her books were promptly swept into her bag. A huff from the haughty lady followed her out of the building.

Winifred shivered as she left the library.

Her home – a small townhouse, tucked in next to Camford Abbey – was not far. The presence of the abbey did mean that she got an unfortunate earful of church bells every Sunday. But the location redeemed itself by being especially central, as it made her walking distance to any place in town absolutely minimal.

She couldn’t stop writing now, though. The papers and notes needed to be ready for tomorrow morning’s meeting with her co-writer. This article had to be flawless for it to be published in a paper that mattered. Much less for it to make the impact they needed.

They almost had everything they required, but the volunteers’ testaments were surprisingly flimsy. Almost as though they, too, had been trying to hide something.

_But what was it?_

Winifred tightened her coat around herself. Its coffee-stained material did little to keep the cold at bay. She would have to start wearing thicker coats. Winter was coming on faster this year than expected. It was only the end of October, after all.

As Winifred walked, she passed a little girl hanging onto her mother’s hand. The girl was dressed up in gossamer skirts. Plastic wings were attached to her back with elastics. Winifred pinched her eyebrows together. Then she remembered. _Of course. Halloween._

She would have to rely especially on her trusty Beatles vinyl to get her through the evening. _Children yelling outside isn’t ideal_ , she thought as she unlocked her home. _Perhaps_ Dear Prudence _could do something to balance it out._

That had been Winifred’s hope, anyway. A Beatle’s vinyl. A slice of mushroom pie. A glass of red wine. Hours by lamplight.

Dusk fell. A full wine glass stood on the counter. The pie sat in the microwave. A shadow slipped from the townhouse. A sea of trick-or-treaters passed by.

And the White Album lay on the floor, stained an unforgiving shade of red.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooh who could it be? What could Winnie be writing? How is DI Anne going to find out?
> 
> Thank you sm for reading! Sorry it was so short, I promise the rest of the chapters will be much chunkier. This was just meant to be a little teaser haha. Keep your eyes peeled for the first chapter :)


	2. Chapter 1: Trick or Treat?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mostly exposition, exploring married Shirbert and setting the whole investigation in motion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW//blood, vomiting & murder. That makes it sound v grim, but they do go with the territory of a murder mystery and I promise there is a lot of Shirbert fluff too!
> 
> Also, HUGE apologies for taking so long to get to you with Chapter 1 – between my exams and my beta reader having to send in drafts for her thesis, it's been a bit hectic. But better late than never, I suppose?
> 
> And on that note, a massive, massive thanks to my wonderful beta reader, Kat ❤️
> 
> Anyway, without further ado, here's the chapter! Hope you loves enjoy it xx

“Anne?” Gilbert’s voice rung out through their home. He closed the door to the night falling behind him. Rubbing his eyes, he placed his bag on the floor.

“Gil?” He heard her voice as he toed his way out of his shoes and started padding down the hallway.

As he glanced up, Anne poked her head around the corner of her office door near the end of the hallway. Gilbert immediately felt the tension in his shoulders melt away when he saw a smile crack the line of his wife’s lips. The muted light streaming into the hallway from her office made her loose hair appear close to a shade of copper.

“Hello, love,” she said, scurrying down the hall, straight into her husband’s open arms.

Wrapping his arms around her shoulders, Gilbert dropped a kiss to the crown of her head before laying his chin to rest on it. They stood there for a minute, just breathing in each other’s warmth. Finally, Anne withdrew, taking in her husband as he stood before her. The circles under his eyes were darker than usual. His shoulders were heavier than she’d have liked.

“They’re making you burn the midnight oil again, love,” Anne said, reaching out to stroke his cheek with the back of her hand. She could feel the coarseness of stubble starting to trouble his face.

He took her hand in his own and kissed her palm. Shrugging, he said, “You’re exaggerating, Anne-girl. It’s only half six.”

Anne sighed, a half-hearted smile lifting the right corner of her mouth. “I know you’re the best forensic pathologist they have. But I can’t help but worry when I don’t get to see you until I’m on my way to sleep.”

Gilbert exhaled a soft snicker. Something between amusement and exasperation. “It is what it is. I just do whatever they need me for. Besides, you’re a fine one to talk.”

A line worried the space between Anne’s eyebrows. “How so?”

“Well, don’t you think that _I’m_ the one that ought to be worried? I mean, Camford police station ringing its finest inspector all hours of the day and night? Surely that can’t mean anything but trouble.”

Anne rolled her eyes. “However grim our professions might be, at least we both try to shed some light in the darkness.”

One corner of Gilbert’s mouth twitched upward. “Ever the diplomat.”

“I have to be in this house.”

Gilbert snorted. “Can’t argue with that.”

Anne grinned at him, before raising their intertwined hands and brushing her lips over her husband’s knuckles. He looked at her with kind of a reverence that may have coloured his cheeks in the early days of their courtship. But as he ran his thumb over her decade-old wedding band, he sighed. He was endlessly grateful that he could look at her like that every day for the rest of his life.

“How I love you, Anne-girl,” he breathed as she looked back up at him.

She smirked as she stood on the balls on her feet to place a kiss on the corner of his mouth, just where his laugh lines had started to become more permanently engraved. Then she spun around, still holding his hand, and dragged him down the hallway with her.

“I’m afraid,” she said, as she guided him to the kitchen at end of the hallway, “that you might love me a little less if you know that I have not spared one single thought as to what we might have for dinner.”

A chuckle rose from Gilbert’s chest as Anne let go of his hands to go to the other side of the kitchen counter. “Then _I’m_ afraid that you may have forgotten that I didn’t marry you because I thought you would have a hot plate on the table every night.”

“Mm…” Anne said, leaning her elbows on the counter, a teasing glint in her eye. “Then why, may I ask, did you marry me, Dr Blythe?”

“Well,” Gilbert started, taking off his coat and draping it over a kitchen chair. “I could hardly let the first female recipient of Hertford’s chancellor’s award slip through my fingers now, could I?”

Anne snorted, straightening back up and turning around to rummage for their dinner in the freezer behind her. “I should have known you were just after the prize money.”

“Well, I’d be lying if I said that it was poorly spent on a honeymoon to the Isle of Skye,” Gilbert said, coming up to the kitchen counter and leaning on his forearms as he returned the smirk that Anne tossed him over her shoulder.

“Considering the pitiful number of things we did on that trip that we actually paid for, Dr Blythe, one might say that the money was, in fact, misspent,” Anne quipped.

“Speak for yourself. I consider not a single penny wasted.”

Anne rolled her eyes. “Alright, have it your way, then,” she said, as she extracted a frozen spinach and feta and quiche from the freezer.

Gilbert’s mouth twisted into the same smirk that had sent nineteen-year-old Anne’s heart aflutter all those years ago.

“But I’m afraid we’ll have to wait for dinner, in any case, my love,” Anne said, making her way over to the counter.

“How’s that?”

“Well, for starters, this’ll have to thaw for a bit. And then, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the streets are positively _crawling_ with kids who are dressed up as pirates and Winnie-the-Pooh characters,” Anne informed him, setting the quiche on a plate.

“And let me guess…” Gilbert held out his hand for her to hand him the savoury pastry. “They’re all equally willing to break our door down just in case they don’t fill their plastic pumpkin buckets this year?”

“Of course,” Anne drawled. “It’s a bloodbath out there.”

“Did you save any of the _Quality Street_?” Gilbert asked as he placed their dinner in the microwave.

“Er…” Anne said, rummaging about in the pile of Halloween sweets that were strewn all over the kitchen table. “Just the purple ones and the green triangles.”

“With no intention of giving them away?”

Anne fixed him with a serious expression, but there was an unmistakable mirthful glint in her eyes. “Do you know me at all, Dr Blythe?”

“Thank God I do,” Gilbert said, shutting the microwave door and walking around the counter. His lips quirked into a smile as he wrapped his arms around Anne from behind and kissed her shoulder. “I’ll come help in a minute,” he continued, letting go of Anne and taking his coat off the back of the chair. “I’d just prefer to receive guests in clothes that haven’t been used to examine corpses.”

She turned around and looked at his attire. “What do you mean? That makes it the _perfect_ Halloween costume, love.”

Gilbert rolled his eyes. “You might think so, Anne-girl, but I somewhat doubt Mrs Lee and Mrs Suskin will agree.”

“They’re no fun,” she pouted.

“And that’s why I married you and no one else.”

“Oh, just go get changed then,” Anne said, jokingly shoving Gilbert from the kitchen.

She turned back to the counter, making little piles of the sweets that she was planning on giving to the next children that arrived on their doorstep. Anne smiled when she thought of the little kids running around, all in dress-up costumes. It wouldn’t be long before—

The doorbell interrupted Anne’s thoughts. She swept several piles of the sweets into a bowl – a hodgepodge of chocolate coins and hobnobs – and scuttled out of the kitchen. When she reached the door, the voices of whispering children hummed on the other side. She set the bowl of sweets on the little table next to the front door. Anne’s eyes lit up as she threw the door open.

“Trick or treat!”

“Oh, happy Halloween, darlings!” Anne exclaimed, overwhelmed by the sight of the brother and sister in front of her.

“Hello, Anne,” Lucy Austin said kindly, hands on her children’s shoulders. A ghost and a police officer. Anne’s heart melted.

“Evening, Lucy,” Anne replied, passing her neighbour a smile before crouching down to be at her children’s eye level. “And let’s see… Is that Harry under the sheet?”

“Boo!” Harry called out. His sister jumped before elbowing him in the side.

“Jordan!” Lucy chided, frowning down at her. “Don’t be nasty to your brother.”

Jordan sighed and Anne could tell she was trying very hard not to roll her eyes. “Sorry, Harry.”

Lucy stroked her head, before turning to Anne and passing her an amused glance.

“So, you’ve elected to spend your night floating around Camford, then?”

Harry nodded, taking hold of his Lucy’s hand that was still on his shoulder. Noting his shyness after he buried his head into his mum’s skirt, Anne turned towards his older sister.

“And shall I call you Constable Jordan this evening, then?” Anne asked her, saluting the girl.

“At your service, Detective Inspector Blythe,” little Jordan replied, standing up tall and returning Anne’s salute.

Anne grinned at the little girl’s enthusiasm. She felt herself glowing at the sight of a little girl in a police uniform. She hoped that Jordan would be wearing a real one someday. The force could greatly benefit from having more female officers. She and Diana were the only current ones at Camford City Police and they weren’t in the uniformed squad. Hopefully they wouldn’t have to wait until Jordan grew up.

“Could I tempt you two with some scrumptious treats this evening?” Anne asked, a smirk playing on her lips.

The siblings nodded eagerly, eyes shining with delight. Anne straightened up and leaned back to grab the bowl of sweets from the little table. She looked back at them and an idea popped into her mind.

“How about we make a deal?” Anne asked, just as Harry’s hand started to make an appearance from underneath the sheet draped over his head.

Harry immediately retracted his hand, but Jordan narrowed her eyes.

“Hmm…” said the girl. Anne could see the cogs turning in her brain. A grin spread over her face. “What kind of deal would that be, Detective Inspector?”

Anne quickly arranged her face into a serious expression. “Well, Constable Jordan, I’d say that you can take two handfuls of treats, but–!” Anne paused for dramatic effect and dropped her voice to a whisper. The siblings leaned in to catch her words. “Then you must promise to only catch baddies and not ghosts.”

Lucy covered her mouth as she snorted at Anne’s antics. Harry and Jordan’s faces lit up at her proposition.

“Of course, I won’t, don’t be silly!” Jordan giggled.

“Then help yourselves,” Anne said, holding out the bowl for them.

Their hands immediately dipped into the bowl of sweets. Harry stuffed two handfuls into his basket at random. Jordan, on the other hand, selected a much more curated version of sweets for her basket.

“Don’t be greedy, honey,” Lucy warned, taking Harry’s wrist as his hand teetered nearer for a third time.

His sister pinched his elbow. Harry batted Jordan’s hand away.

“You don’t have a _Colin_ , do you?” Harry asked, peering up at Anne.

“Harry!” Lucy chastised, throwing Anne an apologetic look that said ‘ _you know how it is’_.

“It’s just… Miss Rose wasn’t home and she gave me a _Colin_ last year,” Harry muttered, a pout adorning his features.

Anne furrowed her eyebrows. “Miss Rose wasn’t home?”

Lucy nodded, her short hair brushing her shoulders. “Yeah, her lights were on, but she didn’t answer. She might’ve left them on this morning before she left. Ruby mentioned that she’d gone to London earlier this week, I believe? Said she’s busy with some sort of article. Maybe she was back there today.”

“Ah.” Anne worried her lower lip.

“So, you don’t have a _Colin_?” Harry piped up, interrupting Anne’s short train of thought.

“Harry!” Jordan exclaimed, copying her mum’s earlier tone.

“No, that’s okay,” Anne said, shaking her head to try and order her thoughts. “My sincerest apologies, Harry, but I don’t have a _Colin_. However, to compensate, you can have a few more chocolate coins. Would that suffice?”

Harry shrugged and Anne held out the bowl to him. He fished out several chocolate coins before dropping them into his basket.

“Thanks, Anne. And sorry for—” Lucy gestured toward Harry, who was picking through the selection of treats in his basket.

Anne straightened up, hands wrapping around the bowl. “Of course! No trouble at all.”

“And about Winifred, I think she just left the lights on. She’s probably got her nose in a book somewhere. We’ll call round there later.”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Anyway, it was lovely to see you,” Lucy smiled. Then she looked down at her children. “Say ‘happy Halloween, Mrs Blythe.’”

“Happy Halloween, Mrs Blythe!” the Austin children chorused.

“Happy Halloween, darlings!” Anne exclaimed, balancing the bowl in one hand to raise the other to her lips before blowing them a kiss. The retreating siblings blew one back to her before disappearing into the darkened street.

Anne turned back into the house. Her brows scrunched together as she walked back to the kitchen. She set the bowl down on the counter and slowly sat down, elbows on the counter and head in her hands.

_Winifred Rose had been to London? Her lights had been on? But she didn’t open the door? What article is she writing? Why did Ruby know anything about it? Was she back—_

“Love? Anne-girl?” Anne jerked as she felt Gilbert’s hand on her shoulder.

“Bloody hell, Gil,” Anne exhaled, reaching out for her husband’s hand. He threaded their fingers together.

“You looked awfully serious, my love. Did the _Winnie-the-Pooh_ costumes scare you that much?”

Anne scoffed and lightly hit his chest with her free hand. “Shut up, Blythe.”

Gilbert let out a low laugh. “What is it then?”

A line worried the space between Anne’s eyebrows again. “It’s something the kids said about Winifred Rose.”

It was Gilbert’s turn to knit his brows together. “Winifred Rose? You mean Oxford Winnie? The one who went to Hertford with us?”

“Yeah. I don’t know,” Anne said, fiddling with a loose thread on the hem of Gilbert’s jersey. “Something about her lights being on, but her not answering the door.”

Gilbert’s brows grazed his fringe. “Sounds Agatha Christie-esque, if you ask me.”

Anne turned in her seat to wrap her arms around Gilbert’s torso, laying her head on his chest. She sighed. “You’d think I stopped thinking things like that in my line of work. Fictional detectives aren’t of much use in real life.”

“But that hasn’t happened?”

Anne shook her head. “No. Something’s fishy.”

“Then get your line.”

Anne lifted her head from his chest. His expression was guarded. It was the one that he always wore whenever they talked about her job, which was never a pleasant topic, to say the least. But she loved her job. Bringing people justice in any way that she could. She wouldn’t trade it for anything. Except perhaps Gilbert, but things had never come to that, so there was really no point in thinking such things.

“I’ll hold the fort,” he said, cutting into Anne’s reverie.

She nodded. “Thanks, Gil.

He stepped away, catching her hands in his and brushing his lips over them.

The wisp of a smile graced Anne’s lips. “I’ll ring Diana.”

Gilbert stepped aside, squeezing her shoulder as she passed him. Anne padded over to the table where they kept their landline. Diana’s number was ingrained in her muscle memory and she lost no time in turning the dial to reach the sergeant. The static buzzed in Anne’s ears. Then a click on the other end of the line.

“Di?”

“Hello? Is that Anne?”

“Yeah, speaking. Listen,” Anne said, clearing her throat. “I know it’s late, but I think there’s something up.”

“What is it?”

“Yeah, Gil and I just had a couple of kids that came trick-or-treating and they said something really strange. About Winifred Rose.”

“The journalist?”

“That’s the one.”

“What’s going on? Is she okay?”

“I don’t know; the kids said something really strange about her not answering her door, but that her lights were on.” Anne’s voice went up towards the end of her speech, as though she was asking, rather than affirming her statement.

“Do you want to go have a look?” Diana immediately asked, already knowing where Anne was heading. They had been partners for far too long for them not to notice the signs of wanting to investigate.

“No harm in going, is there? I mean, if she’s fine, then that’s good. But I’m just worried about if she isn’t…”

“Say no more,” Diana said, and Anne could hear her scrambling with something on her phone table. “I’ll come round to yours. Give me five minutes.”

“Mind yourself.”

“I’ll be there.”

Getting up and putting the earpiece of the phone down in one motion, Anne looked back at Gilbert. His eyes were big. His lips pursed.

“I’ll get your coat,” he said.

Anne nodded. Her heart sank to her shoes as she watched Gilbert leave the kitchen. She would have to tell him later. It was probably nothing anyway. Going to Winnie’s was just a precaution. She would be back before their evening tea.

“Here you are, love,” Gilbert said, opening the coat for Anne to slip her arms into.

She turns around. Lets him lay the coat to rest on her shoulders. Lets him wrap his arms around her waist. Lets him tell her that he’ll keep the trick-or-treaters entertained.

She just wished that she could tell him. She had wanted to save it until after the trick-or-treating. Now was not the time. _Evening tea_ , she kept reminding herself. _Just wait for evening tea_.

Evening tea was a tradition that they had sustained since studying at Oxford. After they had started dating, they realised that their daytime schedules had precious little overlap. Anne was always running off to the Radcliffe Camera to scour its shelves for citations in her English and History essays. On the other hand, Gilbert was permanently confined to an array of laboratories to witness and execute experiments that the university deemed necessary to earn his degree in Biomedical Sciences.

And so, to accommodate for their lost company while the sun was out, evening tea was born. The cosy common room at Hertford College had played host to many a late-night revision session undertaken by the pair. Tea had been a natural consequence of these nocturnal academic pursuits. If they needed some artificial assistance to stay awake, poring over essays for hours on end, they would have caffeinated breakfast tea. If they needed something to dull the ever-present recollections of pathogens or historical dates, they would turn to Anne’s trusty Forty Winks brew. Either way, the tea break always served as a way for them to catch up with each other.

And it had remained so for their nigh on fifteen years of being partners.

“I’ll be back soon,” Anne said, gently prying herself from Gilbert’s embrace.

“I’ll have the kettle on.”

*

Anne waited by her front gate. Children and their parents were mulling about the street. A fire-fighter here, a dinosaur there. A pirate growled at her as she passed. Anne stifled a giggle at her father’s hasty apologies. The air bit her nose and cheeks, warning her of the winter that was still to come. It was very cold for this time of the year.

“Good evening, dear Inspector,” Anne heard a familiar voice. Smiling, she turned to see her fellow detective a few steps away. Diana’s face was lit by the unenthusiastic light of the lamppost by Anne and Gilbert’s home.

“Lovely evening, my dear,” Anne replied.

Diana stopped an arm’s length from Anne. She regarded her with her head cocked to the side. “You look like you could use a hug.”

A warmth flooded Anne that she didn’t know she needed until Diana had uttered those words. “How did you know?”

Diana stepped up to Anne and wrapped her arms around her friend. “Just do.”

Anne gripped the back of Diana’s coat. She didn’t want to leave Gilbert tonight. But she had to trust her gut. It had never betrayed her before. Why would it start now?

“Don’t worry, dear,” Diana said, squeezing Anne tightly before letting her go. “It’s just a precaution, right?”

Anne nodded. More to try and convince herself than Diana. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Diana offered her a sympathetic smile. Then she stuffed her hands in her coat pockets and bumped Anne’s shoulder as she passed her. Winifred’s house was only a block away. They would be there and back in a jiffy.

“So,” Anne said, running up to where Diana’s fast pace had already taken her. “Did you get any good trick-or-treaters this year?”

*

The abbey loomed over Winifred’s townhouse. The kids were right. Her lights _were_ on. The detectives shared a glance. Anne lifted the latch on her gate. She left it for Diana to close. They traipsed up the porch steps in silence. Anne knocked on the door.

No answer.

Diana took her turn.

No answer.

Anne kicked at the doormat. A key skidded across the porch. She crouched to pick it up.

“I’ll get it,” Diana offered. Anne dropped the key into her outstretched palm. She placed the key in the lock and twisted. The door swung open.

Anne glanced at Diana. “After you.”

Diana stepped over the threshold. She padded into the home. Hand on her Glock 17. Anne lifted her foot to follow. Then a sharp inhale.

“Bloody hell,” Diana breathed. Eyes the size of dinner plates.

Anne stepped inside. She froze. There lay the body on the floor. A pool of blood stained the Persian carpet. Winifred’s glassy eyes were still open. Half-dry blood that had trickled from her grimace stained her cheek.

Anne felt the colour leave her face. And she threw up on Winifred’s doorstep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh, so what did you think? I wanted to have the fluff to contrast the pretty horrible prospect of someone being murdered (which I'm finding really hard to write, bc I don't want to kill anyone. It makes me sad. But needs must in a murder mystery, after all.)
> 
> Please tell me your fav parts! I'd love to know on which things I can elaborate (and where I can leave red herrings among actual clues lmao)
> 
> Also, let me know if you got the Les Misérables reference!! If you did, I'll be v impressed and immediately be your best friend, no take-backs ;)
> 
> I'm almost done with my exams so the rest of the chapters should be posted much more frequently :) Take care, loves xx


End file.
